Venice ...

... Day 4.
Today we lightly murdered our poor feet, or pounded them thin as escalopes of veal at the very least. AND we didn’t take Rupert, since we assumed that, like everywhere else now, the museums would not allow photos. Pity that, because apart from the Guggenheim they all DID! Fuckitystumpery. Still, never mind, I’ll buy the picture books.
First up we wandered off to the Dorsoduro district to visit the Peggy Guggenheim collection in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni. And can you believe it, we actually managed to get inside first try?
It's a truly wonderful collection of modern art in the most magnificent building, to think Peggy used to live in it, with all that art!
Given it was a bit of a late start for us, lunchtime was soon upon us and fortuitously there was a rather nice cafe at the museum, exceptionally good art museum cafe food, we were both impressed and grateful.
Next stop was the Gallerie dell’ Accademia di Venizia, completely the other direction in art! But o so beautiful. Goodness but I love that special pink they used in religious paintings way back when.
Next up we stopped by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti for the Glasstress 2011 exhibition, from the Berengo Centre for Contemporary Art and Glass. Which took us in yet another wild arty direction. We also got to see the “Thin House” by (bugger, sorry) which is part of the whole Biennial thing that’s going on here at the moment.
By this stage we were more than a little weary, and as luck would have it, our wandering through the narrow streets in search of sustenance, or a cold drink at least, led us to Al Vecio Marangon. Just in time for more spritz and beer.
I have become quite fixated on obtaining some of those beautiful linen towels we are constantly lavished with at our hotel. And on the way back we stopped at a couple of likely spots (including Frette which wanted E150 for what amounts to a rather large tea towel) but could not really find what I was looking for. Buggeration.
Still, my searching did lead us to finding the Museo della Musica which has a beautiful exhibition of ancient musical instruments, including 5 centuries of Italian violin making. And then, serendipitously we stumbled upon a pastry shop, Fuori Menu (Fly Away) where I somehow managed to spend E25 on biscuits, nougat and violently (in a good way) musky rose jelly lollies.
Dinner tonight will be somewhere nice I think, we’re here for a good time not a long time after all!
EDITED TO ADD – Dinner ended up being at Osteria San Marco and was so very, very good I think we’ll go back. I for one, certainly need some more of that cod & artichoke dish, o my!
I also had the Gran Fritto Misti, which was not your ordinary everyday hot & oily fired fish. It was fresh, light, beautifully cooked and had mixed all through, almost Japanese tempera vegetables. NOM! I’ve no idea what Mr Brown ate, except for ½ of my misti! We also had a lovely local/regional wine, suggested by our waiter, and we were very glad we took his advice on that.